Spirits
Spirits are beverages made by the process of distillation. The “Spirits” category is not commonly used at Drinkhacker because the vast majority of reviews we publish fall into this category. It is used only occasionally to help organize our category list (and mainly gets clicked by accident).
Don Q is a huge rum brand from Puerto Rico. It’s now producing three flavored versions, two of which we were fortunate enough to review. Flavorings are natural and the proof level is rock bottom, so drink all you want. Don Q Coco Rum is (obviously) a coconut-flavored rum (aged at least one year). Quite…
From the Jalisco highlands, 1921 is a line of 100 percent agave tequilas… plus a tequila liqueur. I tasted them all while trying to figure out what the symbolism of “1921” was… and failed. The line is unusual in that the agave undergoes a double fermentation process, said to offer more smoothness and a wider…
It’s not just a drawing on the label of this whiskey. There really is a Slane Castle. It’s even in Ireland, thank the stars. Slane Castle Irish Whiskey is a new whiskey on our shores, and it’s now becoming available on the eastern seaboard. Created by the good folks at Cooley Distillery, it’s a young…
Hailing from Guyana, El Dorado makes what is known as demerara rum, which is simply a rum from the Guyana area that is made using demerara sugar, aka turbinado sugar — you probably know the coarse brown crystals best under the trade name Sugar in the Raw. El Dorado isn’t Rum in the Raw, though:…
The only sane thing to do here is to explain what soju is. It’s not sake, though sake drinkers will notice some similarities in the flavor profile. While sake is more akin to wine or beer, soju is a Korean distilled beverage, more like vodka. But not exactly: At just 48 proof (Ty Ku’s alcohol…
Our good friends at Gordon & MacPhail sent along these three new independently-bottled single malt whiskys for our consideration. Naturally we oblige them with our fair-minded coverage. Gordon & MacPhail Benromach 10 Years Old is a privately bottled whisky from a relatively quiet Speyside distillery. It’s clearly young, with a bit of bite on the…
Dulce Vida: “The sweet life?” The lush life is more like it. Tequila already gets a bad rap for turning ordinary citizens into raging drunks, and Dulce Vida has to go and pump it up to 100 proof just to make sure the job gets done. I’m sure their hearts were in the right place.…
A few months ago I had the opportunity to try The Balvenie’s newest expression — a 17 year old single malt finished in Madeira casks — before its formal release. But that was a mere taste in the grand scheme of things. Lately I’ve been sampling it again to form a more fully fleshed-out opinion…
This year, Laphroaig bids farewell to its 15 year old Scotch and replaces it with one of slightly higher maturity (and perhaps a bit more coin): Laphroaig 18 Years Old. It’s quite an interesting malt from the Islay-based distiller, more mature and refined than the younger Laphroaig, which is invariably so heavy on the peat…
There are a lot of ways to get apple character into a cocktail — Calvados, apple juice, even Apple Pucker, God help you — and now Van Gogh adds “wild” apple to its lineup of flavored vodkas. Truth be told this isn’t my favorite entry into the otherwise top-notch Van Gogh arsenal. The aroma and…